ROOKMIN Jameer, an elderly pensioner was found dead in her home on the upper reaches of the West Coast Berbice, last week, brutally murdered. Her throat had been slit. Reported as discovering the body, lying in a pool of blood, had been one of her children– a daughter who has since, allegedly, confessed to being the killer.
Of course, the suspect, who happens to be the daughter, is charged for the crime and is entitled to due process; therefore, we are not addressing her innocence or guilt.
Mrs. Jameer’s demise is as brutal as is its occurrence, since from all that has been gleaned from very close family members, but more so persons from within her community, she had been the target of what had been clearly bullying, physical abuse, and enforced imprisonment as a result of the threat of violence from the suspect– her daughter. She had been relating her abusive experiences to even her son. In the end, her life was cut short.
Her murder is another statistic of an aged citizen found dead, in the precincts of her home. Although not directly in the same category of the senior citizen living alone and suffering such an untimely end by unknown hands, it is the type of act that brings to the fore the issue of abuse of the elderly. This is surely one such sad incident that has culminated in physical demise.
Abuse of the elderly is definitely a problem in Guyana, as evidenced by the drift of more elderly persons either seeking refuge into care homes because of uncaring treatment, inclusive of both physical and mental abuse by relatives with whom they are living or have lived, or being deliberately placed there by the family because of being perceived as a burden and moreover, infirm. We are not contending that it has become the norm for family members to be abused and/or be placed in residential homes as soon as they become aged. There are still numerous family members who lovingly take care of their elderly, according them love, care, compassion, and respect in their twilight years. Many do so dutifully ensuring that, their physical permitting, their loved ones are part of the social home setting, both indoors and outdoors.
But many of their counterparts are not so fortunate. Their accounts of maltreatment at the hands of family members, as close as direct offspring are often sad and appalling. So many, who once were able-bodied, but fallen to early illness which has made them debilitated, causing premature ageing, and no longer able to contribute financially.
Others would have come of age, attracting the natural process of incapacities usually associated with such a chronological process. But even the ones, like Mrs. Jameer, though not reported to be ailing or bedridden, are prey to desultory treatment, such as being beaten, and bullied out of their pensions and/or savings; often being threatened with eviction if they refuse to cooperate. In fact, many have seen their resistance resulting in increased abuse, and eventual death, as what happened to Mrs. Jameer.
Absolutely, this is an extension of domestic violence, domestic abuse of the elderly if such a description can be coined; for it is inherent of the same cruel ingredients of the daily nightmare which women do suffer before many of them are killed in the process.
In the same way that many of these editorials would have advocated the involvement of the community, as offering the first line of assistance to situations of domestic violence, the same is advocated for abuse of the elderly, many whose daily sufferings at the hands of relatives are known within their communities. Then there are the community policing groups and neighbourhood police, which should be very au fait with what is occurring within their immediate locales.
It would seem that the murdered elderly citizen had been complaining to close relatives and even villagers about her abusive situation; but alas, nothing had been done on her behalf. In the end, she met a cruel demise.
We repeat here that domestic violence/abuse in any community, perpetrated on any child, women or the elderly, male or female, must be the concern of every villager, since its brutal act is being exacted on someone that is known to them, or they knowing the perpetrator. Even if not personally acquainted with them, there is still a moral obligation to gather concerted assistance to protect and save the victim. There has to be intervention, and not mind one’s own business, even if it is the instance of aged citizens incapable of defending themselves, as was the case with Mrs. Jameer.
Her brutal death is a bitter lesson as to what merely advising about making a report to the relevant authorities, or not believing that such a very close relative could/would commit such an atrocity on her own mother. She needed support and encouragement to go to the authorities, however reluctant she may have been to do so on her own. That support could have come only from those around her. In the end, she died because of its absence.
